by Jason Gregory
This article first appeared in Watkins Mind Body Spirit, issue 43.

The effortless universal virtue of humility is what evokes enlightenment in life. The big problem with this mystical virtue is generally we only have fleeting moments of its power, as we constantly get sucked back into the subjective dramas of the world in our mind. As a result, we revere the sage for their sustained absorption in the lowest and paradoxically most powerful state of humility. A master absorbed in the humble and most refined state of consciousness has truly accepted life as it is. They have no desire to promote their own agenda, as from this state all agendas have evaporated like dewdrops on a hot sunny day.

We seek to attain this level of perception through our spiritual practice but we get lost in social and cultural habits of thinking linearly, as we strive to succeed by gaining “spiritual powers.” This has more to do with showmanship than mysticism. We shed our old persona for a new and improved “spiritual persona.” Still driven by the ego we are attempting to define ourselves as someone “special” in relation to the world. Our spiritual practice becomes more about how to stick our head above the rest of the crowd.

But enlightenment has no relationship to such an approach. Enlightenment is evoked by resting in the lowest place of humility. Water corresponds to this low place of humility. Water is the lowest force of nature, yet paradoxically it is the most powerful. Humility, like water, is the low and receptive virtue of nature within our psychology and linked to the unconscious, which paradoxically is the most powerful state of being that transforms the world without any intention to do so.

Enlightenment is not something we can strive to attain. It is as natural as water moving down a mountain stream undisturbed, where the destination and journey are one. Humility is the state of consciousness when destination and journey, self and other, individual and universe, samsara and nirvana, reveal their intrinsic unity disguised as mutual opposites. Humility evokes this perception of enlightenment, which is actually the fruit of all spiritual practice and also life. We don’t perceive this in our life or practice because we are indoctrinated by culture to focus on the foreground of life instead of the background. We only perceive and are attracted to chaos in the world which is a reflection of the attraction to chaos within our mind. This eventuates because we have not refined our consciousness into the pure jewel of transparent and reflective awareness. When we are caught in the detail/drama of life we are trying to control the universe to suit our egotistical desires and cravings. We are still playing a game of one-upmanship with the world because we appall the low road of humility that unites us with the source of the universe.

Humility evokes enlightenment when we give up trying to control life and instead trust the universal flow in the same way that water trusts the contours of a river without resisting its own clear nature of transparency and reflectivity. We are out of sync with the universe because we have lost this innate trust. Our trust continues to sleep dormant because we are trying to change the world to suit our conditioning according to sensory pleasures with the absurd exclusion of pain.

Changing the world is the primary focus of most people. We feel as though we are saving the world but we don’t know who or what from. We believe we are a prisoner in this beautiful garden. We seek to save ourselves from its claustrophobic steel bars that develop in our mind so we can someday enjoy the aroma of the flowers. But we were never enslaved, nor is there anything to free ourselves from. We have invested too much time and energy on the chaos of the world within our mind without realizing it is only the detailed foreground of an orderly background.

Intrinsic to chaos is order. This is the evolved perception of a sage. If our perception is too contracted we lose sight of reality as it is. We perceive chaos within and without, and believe it is stagnant and not undergoing any fundamental change. We become frustrated as a result and seek to force change with an intention that is solely our own. Trying to change or save the world implies that reality is not already perfect and that somehow we are isolated from it as a stranger in this cosmos. Contrary to this common feeling, when we let go and trust the universe, as a sage does, we realize deep within a “sense of unity” that is the goal of all spiritual practice and life.

The fundamental paradox of life is we can never know true and authentic unity if we do not trust the universe. You cannot strive for unity because unity is evoked by the trust you live. Though, this unity is not the same unity that we dream about in images of world peace. It is the unity which dawns on an individual consciousness when opposites merge and chaos becomes perfect order from a state of perception so pure that the nature of the universe is finally seen as it truly is. Only then is world peace possible because our perception of order instead of chaos has given us the humility to receive the world with open arms and an agenda-less mind. Our struggles in life are born from not perceiving perfection in what others erroneously believe is imperfect. Our fundamental notion of duality between self and the universe continues to eclipse this beautiful perfection from our eyes. Living the science of humility is the sage’s medicine for our blindness.

About the author: Jason Gregory is a teacher and international speaker specializing in the fields of Eastern and jason-gregoryWestern philosophy, comparative religion, metaphysics, and ancient cultures. For several years he studied with masters in Buddhism, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Hinduism, and Taoism, travelling to some of the most remote places in the world. The filmmaker of the documentary The Sacred Sound of Creation, he divides his time between Asia and Australia.

Humility, being open and receptive to all experience, is the key to becoming one with the spontaneous patterns of the universe

• Integrates classic teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism with principles of quantum physics to reveal the science of the enlightened masters

• Reveals how we are each capable of shifting from the aggressive path of the warrior to the humble path of the sage

• Explains how the key to catching the current acceleration of conscious evolution is humility

From Krishna and Lao-tzu to Buddha and Jesus, each enlightened master discovered how being receptive to all experience was the key to becoming one with the universe and its spontaneous patterns of order and chaos. Revealing humility as the purest expression of this receptivity, Jason Gregory integrates classic teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Hermeticism with principles from quantum physics to explain the science of humility as practiced by the ancient masters.

The author shows how, driven by fear, the human mind creates the ego. In its greedy and arrogant quest to protect the self and its desires, the ego forges the illusion of separation, weaving complex patterns of reality that shield us from our unity with all beings and result in attitudes of aggression, selfishness, and competition. He reveals how the iconic clash between this complex, aggressive “path of the warrior” and the simple “path of the sage” is reflected in the polarized state of the modern world. Yet this state also reflects the accelerating wave of conscious evolution we are now experiencing. The key to catching this evolutionary wave is humility: the reversal of complexity into simplicity, the ancient science of mental alchemy that represents the Great Work of Eternity.

Jason Gregory is a spiritual philosopher and practitioner of internal arts and esoteric health. He is an internationally renowned author, writer, filmmaker, teacher and worldwide speaker specializing in the fields of eastern and western philosophy, comparative religion, spiritual traditions, metaphysics and ancient cultures. For several years Jason has lived and studied in Asia with the students and masters of the varying sects of Buddhism, Gnosticism, Hermetic Philosophy, Hinduism and Taoism. In these years Jason has searched ashrams, monasteries and temples in some of the most remote places in the world exploring perennial wisdom.

He is the author of the highly acclaimed The Science and Practice of Humility and the cult classic Way of the Weirdo. Jason wrote and directed the online documentary presentation The Sacred Sound of Creation. He has written many articles for high profile magazines and websites around the world. Jason’s work has been featured on many radio shows with his numerous guest appearances.

Jason Gregory spends most of his time writing, traveling and teaching worldwide in his workshops on perennial philosophy, spiritual traditions east and west, esoteric health, psychology and consciousness. His workshops are said to be the most insightful and inspirational events one can attend, as Jason continues to expose that humility is a science that one can apply to their life which unlocks the deeper essence of all wisdom traditions.

The Science and Practice of Humility | Book Trailer
The art which the ancient masters of our past lived by and expressed is a transparent state of consciousness that is a riddle dwelling deep inside the mind of humanity. From the life of Krishna to Lao Tzu, and from Gautama the Buddha to Jesus of Nazareth onto Ramana Maharshi of the modern era, all possessed a universal axiom that secretly transforms the individual and humanity. Enlightenment is the common motif associated with such masters either literally or in parable, yet nevertheless, what was the discovery they acquired to facilitate this illumination? Hidden deep within the annals of time is a science that the enlightened masters revealed within themselves that brings their life into accord with the laws, patterns and principles of the universe.

The Science and Practice of Humility outlines the knowledge of how humility itself is a direct science that an individual can live by, which aligns one with the natural function of the universe. The natural principles and patterns of the universe are not temporary phenomena that exist isolated outside of the human-being, as most institutions erroneously believe. But instead the universal principles and patterns are found within the consciousness of the individual, whether that be physical, mental or spiritual, the principles and patterns are there for all to see in The Science and Practice of Humility.

The modern idea that we need to force ourselves upon life to be successful is actually against the flow and function of how the universe expresses itself. The Science and Practice of Humility demonstrates how the spontaneous nature of the universe corresponds to us being receptive to all experience, and in this core teaching it illustrates to the individual that humility is the human expression of this receptivity which leads to the authentic comprehension of how evolution and enlightenment are intimately related.

On March 26, 2014 Jason Gregory was a special guest on Insight Radio Network with Dr. Steven Hairfield and Liara Covert. The connection in this interview drops a little in and out at the beginning as Jason is living in the remote countryside of Thailand. But if you can persevere this interview explores some topics within his new book “The Science and Practice of Humility.”

Brene Brown (The Gifts of Imperfection) examines vulnerability and imperfection in her latest, which takes its title from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech “Citizenship in a Republic.” Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, is the first to admit that vulnerability makes her uncomfortable, but posits that daring to fail is the only true way to be wholeheartedly engaged in any aspect of life.

“Experiencing vulnerability isn’t a choice—the only choice we have is how we’re going to respond when we are confronted with uncertainty, risk and emotional disclosure,” she says.

Laying out a roadmap for change, the author includes chapters on eliminating blame and shame from work and education, and daring to be the adults we want our children to be. At the same time, she explores what drives people to feel vulnerable and how to address common coping mechanisms in what she calls the “Vulnerability Armory.”

But the core of her message is understanding the difference between guilt and shame, and developing “shame resistance.” Brown’s theories—complete with personal and not always flattering examples from her own life—will draw readers in and have them considering what steps they would dare to take if shame and fear were not present.

Dr. Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past twelve years studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. Her groundbreaking research has been featured on PBS, NPR, CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

Brené’s 2010 TEDxHouston talk, The Power of Vulnerability, is one of the top ten most viewed TED talks on TED.com, with approximately 6 million viewers. Additionally, Brené gave the closing talk at the 2012 TED conference where she talked about shame, courage, and innovation.

Brené’s newest book is, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the way we Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (Gotham, 2012). She is also the author of The Gifts of Imperfection (2010), and I Thought It Was Just Me (2007), and Connections (2009); a shame-resilience curriculum being facilitated by helping professionals across the globe.

Brené lives in Houston with her husband, Steve, and their two children, Ellen and Charlie.

Daring Greatly, Brene Brown
Researcher and thought leader Dr. Brené Brown offers a powerful new vision that encourages us to dare greatly: to embrace vulnerability and imperfection, to live wholeheartedly, and to courageously engage in our lives.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; . . . who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” —Theodore Roosevelt

Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable, or to dare greatly. Whether the arena is a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation, we must find the courage to walk into vulnerability and engage with our whole hearts.

In Daring Greatly, Dr. Brown challenges everything we think we know about vulnerability. Based on twelve years of research, she argues that vulnerability is not weakness, but rather our clearest path to courage, engagement, and meaningful connection. The book that Dr. Brown’s many fans have been waiting for, Daring Greatly will spark a new spirit of truth—and trust—in our organizations, families, schools, and communities.

Dr. Brené Brown on Faking It, Perfectionism and Living Wholeheartedly – Super Soul Sunday – OWN
In her book Daring Greatly, Dr. Brené Brown identifies 10 qualities people living a wholehearted life have in common. Here, she discusses two with Oprah. Watch to find out why Dr. Brown says inauthenticity is contagious and why perfectionism is really another form of fear.

Like this:

Humility – In Buddhism and most faiths, humility – feeling that we all share common ground, feeling neither superior or inferior to others – is both a prerequisite to awakening and an expression of mature spirituality. This talk explores how our conditioning and culture reinforce a swing from ego-inflation (self-importance, feeling special, better than others) to ego-deflation (feeling unworthy). We then look at how a wise and kind attention opens us to who we are beyond these confining egoic states, and enables us to live with humility and grace.

Each day we face a barrage of images and messages from society and the media telling us who, what, and how we should be. We are led to believe that if we could only look perfect and lead perfect lives, we’d no longer feel inadequate. So most of us perform, please, and perfect, all the while thinking,

What if I can’t keep all of these balls in the air?
Why isn’t everyone else working harder and living up to my expectations?
What will people think if I fail or give up?
When can I stop proving myself?

InTHE GIFTS OF IMPERFECTION, Brené Brown, Ph.D., a leading expert on authenticity, shame, and courage shares what she’s learned from a decade of research on the power of Wholehearted Living.

She writes, “Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, No matter what gets done andhow much is left undone, I am enough. It’s going to bed at night thinking, Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.”

Dr. Brown’s most unique contribution comes from her 10-year groundbreaking study on vulnerability and shame. In this new book, she not only gives us direction for living a more authentic life, but courageously talks about “the things that get in the way.”

For example, in the chapter on cultivating rest and play, Brown addresses the challenges of letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth. In her chapter on creativity she explains the paralyzing properties of comparison. Brown may be one of the only writers in this genre that offers us a path for change and an honest look at the obstacles.

As a nationally renowned researcher and speaker, Dr. Brown’s perspective is fresh, honest, and always delivered with warmth and humor. She writes about the experiences we all have, but few of us are willing to discuss. Using personal stories of her own struggle to “embrace vulnerability” she writes about the experiences we all have, but few of us are willing to discuss.

The Gifts of Imperfection
In this special presentation, renowned research professor and author Dr. Brené Brown shares what she’s learned from a decade of research on the power of authenticity. She will help viewers engage with the world from a place of courage and worthiness. We’ve all experienced the pressure to fit in, and the feeling that our worthiness is measured by how we look or what we earn. For many, that leads to a cycle of performing, perfecting, pleasing, and proving.

Like this:

When we are connected with the Universe, we realize that the small feelings in life are the ones that have the ability to make us happy

FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

More than a decade ago, I had a job working in an office at a strip mall in southern California, and I spent most of my time there. After dark, I would turn out the lights and sit at my desk and write. Not knowing I was there in the dark, nearly every night a homeless woman would arrive with a few cardboard boxes, put together a makeshift compartment to sleep in and situate it just outside the office in the cold air in a little cubbyhole that could not be seen from the street.

I would sometimes hear her muttering to herself. On some nights when she thought she was alone and did not know that on the other side of the stucco wall against which she propped her head, I sat in a comfortable office writing book reviews and other assorted items on a computer screen, my fingers flicking over a keyboard. I would hear her, after she was done putting her box home together, softly sobbing to herself. Here we were, me in the camp of the haves and she in the camp of the have-nots, relatively speaking, less than three feet away from each other, separated by a thin wall, each of us lost in our own universe as if the other were light years away.

Jesus says, “Blessed are you poor…” Such a statement is contrary to common sense and to all of our expectations and wisdom about how the world works. How was this woman blessed? To be blessed connotes happiness, but also signifies a more profound reality than that. There is a sense in which it means to be held in the providential hands of God, to be on the right track and to know the implicit joy of being in such a state in accordance with its potential and promise. Jesus contrasts this in His sermon on the plain, when he says, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” St. James in his epistle follows this up with the words,

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

This seems to have things upside-down and inside-out. Isn’t abundance and wealth a sign of blessing, and destitution a sign of shame and woe? Are not the rich happier because of their abundance of things, the multitude of conveniences, the ability to satisfy all desire and want? And are not the poor more woeful because of their lack of those same things, their misery, their unspent desires, their inability to access even the most basic necessities? Isn’t wealth a sign of integrity and hard work, and poverty a sign of probable addiction and implicit laziness?

I recently overheard someone who said, “money can’t buy happiness; it is happiness.” It fixes problems. The thought of winning the lottery sends many people into hours of profound daydreaming. It would seem that money is not only the source of happiness, but also of hope. It is the meaning of Christmas. Anyone who has had to undergo the onslaught of advertising and jingles that comprise the contemporary celebration of Christmas without a lot of money for gifts and food and travel, money to temper the excited passions of kids who want every new toy that flashes across the TV screen, money to buy ourselves the things we crave and desire using the holiday as an excuse, might agree that a Christmas without cash is a joyless one.

But Jesus says, “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” What does this mean? One is initially tempted to think it refers to a pie-in-the-sky when you die theology, the notion that your suffering on earth will be rewarded in heaven. I consider this amid my own awareness of that which I lack, and I don’t think it is the total truth or the point Jesus is making. The heaven to which He refers has an entrance, a door through which we go even in this life, Christ himself, and we become partakers with him and in him of the life of God even now prior to death and that which awaits us beyond death.

The kingdom of God is a realm of rulership wherein the walls separating us are dismantled: We become equal as human persons made in the image of God, and the judgments of comparison, either condemning others through pride or ourselves through shame, are thrown down. Jesus draws out the distinctions between the two kingdoms, whose kings vie to rule our hearts, later in the Sermon on the Mount as recorded by Matthew. “Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys.”

Does this mean that it is a sin to be wealthy? I don’t think that is the point either, although at the same time there is no justification implied here for seeking wealth as an end, or for the sins of acquisitiveness or greed. The point rather seems to be one that pertains to the disposition of the soul. The poor person because he does not have riches does not put his trust in them, he does not find his security in them.

We may want to have financial security, which is a good objective as long as we understand that the terminology is relative; financial security, as many people discovered in recent years, is not really secure; it can fall out from under your feet as readily as a trap door you did not know was there. The poor person is more easily predisposed to put his trust in God and to seek in Christ a sense of security that in His providential hands God will bring to him whatever medicine is most needed for his soul. That may or may not include a new car, a nice house and a beach vacation on some exotic island.

It is more difficult for a wealthy person to disengage himself from his attachment to riches and to put his trust in Christ. The temptation to feel secure because of affluence and wealth is overwhelming. By the same token, a poor person who desires to be wealthy is filled with the same avarice as the rich person who clings to his wealth, and Jesus advises that a heart captured by the deception that money buys happiness and security, whether rich or poor, will find it nearly impossible to enter the kingdom of heaven — though not impossible because all things are possible with God, even a camel walking through the eye of a needle.

Or, as Paul elaborates in his first letter to his spiritual son, Timothy, “…we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.”

A person who is poor in spirit, on the other hand, does not trust in riches, or in the natural feeling of security afforded by a good job, or in the apparent stability of a comfortable home. Such things are necessary, desirable and part of life, and there is nothing implicitly wrong with one’s enjoyment of them; but the person who is poor in spirit does not invest in them beyond their usefulness. Someone who is poor in spirit depends finally on God, and this dependence leads to peace.

Jesus goes to great lengths to describe the peace that exemplifies the kingdom of God, the realm of the rulership of Christ over one’s own heart, body and mind. It is a realm where violence is not an alternative, where enemies are forgiven, where one gives to all who ask and does not judge. It is a kingdom of forgiveness, fulness, mercy and eternal life.

The kingdom ruled by riches, however, is one of spending and thrift, pride and shame, and constant comparison with others and what others have. Given notions of scarcity and feelings of unsatisfied desire, conflict is born, and perpetual unhappiness becomes the status quo despite the acquirement of many things, all of which I am ultimately ungrateful for and which I take for granted.

All the thanks that we give once a year on Thanksgiving Thursday is canceled out on Black Friday when we mob and fight each other over things, stuff on sale, stuff that we are apparently poised to give to someone we love even if it means crushing other people in our effort to get it, stuff that breaks and does not last. Against the backdrop of eternity before God, this stuff has no value and attaches to us inexorably through our desires for comfort and pleasure and pulls us down to hell.

The way we relate to money and to things in some sense determines the way we relate to other people, those in need and therefore how we relate to Christ. I am reminded of the words of St. Basil, which I read in the Fall issue of In Communion, the international quarterly journal of which I am an associate editor:

“To whom am I unjust when I keep what is mine, asks the rich man. Tell me, which things are yours? Where did you get them from at the beginning of your life? It is like someone who has a seat in the theater, and who objects when others also take their places. He claims that he owns what is for the common use of all. So too with the rich. They claim in advance that which is common property and make themselves the owners of it. Moreover, if everyone acquires what they need and leave the excess over for the destitute, then there will be no rich and no poor. Did you not come naked out of your mother’s womb? Are you not going to return naked to the earth? Where did you get your present possessions from?

If you say ‘from fate,’ then that makes you an atheist who neither acknowledges your Creator nor gives thanks to your Benefactor. If you acknowledge that they came from God, then tell me the reason why He gave them to you. Is God unjust that He gives the things of life to people unequally? Why are you rich while another is poor? In any case, is it not so that you can receive the reward for good and faithful stewardship, and the other can receive the reward for his patient effort? But you, who grasps at everything in your insatiable greed, do you really think that you are doing nobody injustice by plundering so much? Who is the greedy one? The one who is not satisfied with that which is enough. Who is the plunderer? The one who takes that which belongs to all.

Are you greedy? Are you a plunderer? The one who steals clothes off someone’s back is called a thief. Why should we refer to the one who does not clothe the naked, while having the means to do so, as anything else? The bread that you have belongs to the hungry, the clothes that are in your cupboard belong to the naked, the shoes that are rotting in your possession belong to the barefooted, the money that you have buried belongs to the destitute. And so you commit injustice to so many when you could have helped them.”

Jesus says to us, “Blessed are the poor.” To those of us who struggle in these present difficult times, this should come as a word of consolation and hope. Our struggles give us an opportunity to follow Christ, to place our trust in Him and let God be our strength and security.

The Beatitudes, if nothing else, are not only a set of blessings and promises, but they are also descriptive of the character and attributes of Jesus, who with extreme humility and poverty of spirit willfully submitted himself to death in order to redeem us from death. Let us take up our crosses and follow him. This, and not riches or possessions, is the path that leads not only to contentment even amid the trials and difficulties of life, but also leads to peace.

Alixandra interviews Andrew Harvey, Ph.D., youngest recipient of a fellowship at Oxford University. He speaks brilliantly about spirituality, protection, development, expansion, circles of power and more. Prolific and brilliant author of 30 books and the leader of Sacred Activism, he expands on his new book, The Hope.